Features
August 2014 Issue

Interview with Laurel Braitman - Author of "Animal Madness"

An interview with the author of a fascinating new book about mental illness in animals, including dogs with “behavior problems.”

By Barbara Dobbins

Dogs can change our lives. Little did Laurel Braitman know how much one Bernese Mountain Dog would change hers. Not long after Laurel had adopted Oliver, the 4-year-old dog began to exhibit anxious behaviors, soon culminating in his exodus from the window of her fourth-story apartment. A young neighbor boy witnessed Oliver’s fifty-foot fall and screamed, “Mom! A dog fell out of the sky!” …